I think it's time to re-post this summer's picture of baby Wicked, who was given tuna for medicinal purposes when she had a respiratory illness and stopped eating for several days because she couldn't smell her food.

Canned tuna for humans has something in it that cats can't properly digest - I just don't remember what it is. It is one of those things that isn't a problem as a 'rare treat" but is a problem if the owners try to feed the cat canned tuna instead of tuna cat food.

The problem is more that tuna lacks several nutrients that cats need (Vitamin E, calcium, etc.), so cats on a tuna-only diet will suffer nutitionally. The mercury in it isn't good for them, either (nor for humans).

We've given tuna to foster kittens when they're sick and not eating. It's like crack cocaine for kitties. Better to have a not-ideal food than no food at all.

Yep. This. It normally has high levels of mercury which is ok for human digestion but not good for cats. It's ok to feed very rarely like if you run out of cat food or something. You can't feed them off it frequently because of the mercury but also mainly because human canned Tuna doesn't contain something called Taurine which is the most essential nutrient for cats. If they don't get Taurine from their cat food every day, it can cause fatalities. That's also why complementary cat food (which usually doesn't contain taurine) can only be fed to cats every now and again as a treat.

Taurine was what I was trying to remember.

Mom was a science teacher when I was growing up - but she was no longer teaching by the time *I* got to high school. So I might not have had the best teacher around, for ME. The guys teaching at the high school that I went to concentrated on the guy students - what can I say, the early 1970s were a much less "enlightened" time.

Mom was in research & working for a college by that point instead of teaching students from year 9 to 12.

It's interesting to read so many people hate eggs. I love it and hard boiled eggs are one of my favorite food. I've never had eggs in tuna salad, but I may try it soon after hearing about it in this thread.

I love eggs, but I would definately find their unexpected inclusion in tuna...strange. Plus, where I live, not particularly cheaper than tuna. I can get a can of tuna for .69 cents a lot of the time, but eggs are often $4-5 a dozen.

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Mine is a texture issue, so I have to have something crunchy in my tuna or chicken salad to offset the soft salad on the bread. I like onion and bread and butter pickles in mine, egg sometimes, and a little mustard added. Chicken salad often has grapes, mandarin oranges and shallot.

My son and husband do not enjoy vegetables cooked with a roast, we have a roast cooked with garlic and onions served with mashed potatoes.

OTOH, I felt betrayed when I picked up a tuna salad boxed lunch that was loaded with black olives. No, thank you!

« Last Edit: March 05, 2013, 09:22:22 PM by ladyknight1 »

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I grew up calling it "tunafish," but most people nowadays just seem to say "tuna," so I do sometimes, too. Although I haven't gone so far as to start calling soda/coke "pop." So I don't think it's all Americans who call it tunafish, just some? I don't know if it's regional, going out of fashion, or what.

I like mayo, sweet relish, and sometimes celery and/or lettuce in my tunafish. Never egg. I love hardboiled eggs and hardboiled egg sandwiches, I just can't imagine mixing that with tunafish. Oh, and I don't like mayonnaise in other stuff, or on my bread when I make sandwiches, but I do like it mixed with tunafish. I'm also not a big fan of when you get a tunafish sandwich somewhere and they use a ton of mayo and it's all drippy. Ick.

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I would say that it is rude to ask for your food to be prepared a specific way as a means of getting more of the expensive ingredient rather than the "filler", but unless you know for certain that is the reason why someone is making the request, then it is equally rude to attribute such motives to your guests.

As an aside, if I had someone over who I was so conviced was trying to take advantage of me that they would scam me out of an additional portion of tuna, I'd reconsider whether I wanted to invite them at all. Similarly, I'd be quite offended if I thought that my request for a tuna sandwhich without egg was interpreted by my friends as me sneakily trying to get more than my fair share of their tuna.

I would say that it is rude to ask for your food to be prepared a specific way as a means of getting more of the expensive ingredient rather than the "filler", but unless you know for certain that is the reason why someone is making the request, then it is equally rude to attribute such motives to your guests.

As an aside, if I had someone over who I was so conviced was trying to take advantage of me that they would scam me out of an additional portion of tuna, I'd reconsider whether I wanted to invite them at all. Similarly, I'd be quite offended if I thought that my request for a tuna sandwhich without egg was interpreted by my friends as me sneakily trying to get more than my fair share of their tuna.

This is pretty much where I fall. I do think it's important to learn about the different perspectives people come from, so I appreciate knowing that someone might interpret my request to leave out an ingredient in this light. But, it's just not a motivation that would occur to me without additional evidence; and if I already suspected the person was that type of greedy, I don't think I would want to be entertaining them as a friend.